Construction of walls, partitions, and the like



SePt- 12, 1939- A. H. DOUGLAS ET AL 2,172,816

CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS, PARTQTIONS,v AND THELIKE Filed MarchY 19, 1958'Patented Sept. 12, 1939 UNITED STATES CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS, PARTITIONS,AND THE LIKE Arthur Henry Douglas and Victor Lefebure, London, England,assigners to Imperial Chemical Industries Limited, a corporation ofGreat Britain Application March 19, 1938, Serial No. 196,986 In GreatBritain March 25, 1937 10 Claims.

'I'his invention relates to the construction of walls, partitions andthe like from building blocks, e. g. cellular plaster blocks of the kinddescribed in British specification 381,155 or Portland cement-cokebreeze blocks such as are commonly used in the building trade forpartition walls.

'I'his invention has as an object to devise a new method of assemblingsuch building blocks. A

further object is to devise a new method of assembling such buildingblocks which will ensure the correct alignment of the blocks. A furtherobject is to devise a new method of assembling such blocks which willincrease the strength of the final structure. Further objects willappear hereinafter.

These objects are accomplished by the ioliowing invention.

We have'found that we can achieve these objects if we use blocks atleast three edges of which are slotted or grooved lengthwise, eitheralong the whole of their length or adjacent to the corners, and weassemble the blocks with the aid of T-shaped dowel plates, which extendinto the gaps formed by the grooves at the corners of the blocks, andare adapted to (zo-operate with the grooves in aligning the blocks, thegrooves preferably being V-shaped in cross-section to facilitate correctalignment.

The invention is further illustrated with reference to the accompanyingdrawing.

Figure 1 is an elevation of parts of and the joints between fourbuilding blocks. The blocks are shown as if there were no mortar betweenthem, so that the parts of the dowel plates in the corners can be seen.Figure 2 shows one. of the dowel plates, while Figure 3 shows the jointbetween blocks 3 and 4 of Figure 1 as seen from above, block No. 2having been removed.

Referring to Figure l: I, 2, 3 and 4 are four blocks, of which the linesA-A represent the bottom edges of blocks I and 2, and the lines B-Brepresent the top edges of blocks 3 and 4. The lines A-F and B-Frepresent the vertical edges of the blocks. The six dotted lines C-Cshow the position of the 'eottcm of the tl-shaped grooves which are cutin the top and two side edges of each of the blocks. At each of thecorners there is shown and shaded the positions of the dowel plates Dand E. The arms of the dowel plate D rest in the groove on the top edgeof block 3, while the stem of dowel plate D reaches upwards, lodging inthe grooves in the short edges of blocks I and 2. As all the grooves are1/2" (half-inch) deep, while the arms of the (Cl. Y2-107) dowel plateare 1%" (three-quarter-inch) thick, blocks I and 2 are raised by M1(quarter-inch) above block 3, while the width of the stem of dowel plateD similarly causes a gap of 1A" (quarter-inch) between blocks I and 2.Under working conditions these 1A," (quarter-inch). gaps would usuallybe filled with mortar, but this has been removed to show parts of thedowel plates. The parts which show in this manner are heavily shaded,while the positions of those parts of the dowel plates which cannot beseen, owing to their being located in the grooves, are shown in thickdotted lines and light shading. The arms of the dowel plate lily rest inthe grooves` running along the long edges of blocks 3 and 4, while thestem in this case runs downwards in the grooves, along the short edgesof blocks 3 and 4. In a similar manner, these dowel plates hold theblocks apart, to make room for the mortar, besides holding the blocks incorrect alignment. In the preferred form of our invention we use blocksmeasuring 2 (two feet) by l (one foot) and from 2 (two inches) to 4(four inches) thick, and the grooves as shown in Figure 3 may be from5/8 (Ve-eighth-inch) across to 1/2" (half-inch) deep. The dowel platesmay be made of No. 20 gauge mild steel, the arms and stem of the T eachbeing about 2"y (two inches) long, and the arms being 3A(three-quarter-inch) and the stem about 1%," (one-and-a-quarter-inches)in width. When assembling the wall care is taken that the arms of the Tare bedded into the top grooves of each course of blocks before the nextcourse is laid, and the blocks are set with or without mortar.

The invention is equally useful when a wall is being built withoutmortar, in which case T- shaped dowel plates are used with slightlynarrower stem and arms, or else deeper grooves, so that the blocks inthis case will be touching each other along all their edges. It is, ofcourse, advantageous, from the point of view of ensuring correctalignment, that the plates should engage the bottoms of the grooves,which are preferably made V-shaped in cross-section to facilitatecorrect alignment or centering of the blocks.

The widths of the plates and the depths of the grooves given above arein no way critical, neither is the gauge of the steel used. Fordifferent purposes and for different sizes of blocks, it may beadvantageous to use deeper grooves and broader dowel pieces, or thereverse.

This invention is a valuable advance in the art, as it enables thealignment of plaster blocks to be made with ease, especially making iteasier to get a finished Wall of good appearance. When the dowel piecesare set in mortar, they materially strengthen the wall, and themechanical anchorage between the blocks, which they supply, increasesthe nre-resistance of the completed Wall, particularly as the metal isprotected by the block and jointing materials.

As many apparently Widely different embodiments of this invention may bemade Without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to beunderstood that We do not limit ourselves to the specific embodimentsthereof except as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A Wall, partition or the like comprising a plurality of buildingblocks arranged in layers one above the other, at least three edges ofeach block being provided with grooves aligned with the grooves ofadjacent blocks, and T-shaped dowel plates arranged between and at thecorners of adjacent blocks, each dowel plate having oppcsitely extendingarms which extend into the horizontal groove of a lower layer of blocksand a stem portion which extends upwardly into the adjacent opposedvertically-extending grooves of the blocks in the layer next above toprovide a rigid three-point contact between at least three adjacentblocks.

2. A wall, partition or the like as set out in vclaim 1 in which thegrooves are V-shape in cross-section and in which the dowel platesengage the bottoms of the grooves whereby the blocks are centeredrelative to each other by said dowel plates.

3. A wall, partition or the like as set out in claim 1 in which at leastone arm of each of the T-shaped dowel plates is of such width relativeto the depth of the grooves that it separates to a predetermineddistance the blocks between which it lies.

4. A wall, partition, or the like as set out in claim 1 in Which thedowel plates are embedded in jointing material.

5. A wall, partition or the like as set out in claim 1 in which adjacentdowel plates are spaced from one another.

6. A wall, partition or the like as set out in claim 1 in which thelength of each arm of the T-shaped dowel plates is less than therlengthof the respective edge of the block contacted thereby.

'7. A wall, partition or the like .as set out in claim l in` which notmore than three edges of each block are provided with grooves.

8. A Wall, partition or the like as set out in claim 1 in which eachdowel plate extends into the two opposed vertical grooves in theadjoining ends of each two adjoining blocks constituting one of thelayers and into each of the two horizontal grooves leading from saidadjoining vertical grooves.

9. A wall, partition or the like comprising an assembly of buildingblocks, at least three edges of each block being provided With groovesaligned with the grooves of adjacent blocks, and T- shaped dowel platesarranged between and at the corners of adjacent blocks, each dowel plateextending into the aligned grooves of at least three adjacent blocks toprovide a rigid three point connection therebetween.

l0. A Wall, partition or the like comprising an assembly of buildingblocks, at least three edges of each block being provided with groovesaligned with the grooves of adjacent blocks, and dowel plates arrangedbetween and at the corners of adjacent blocks, each dowel platecomprising a plurality of arms arranged to provide at least two rightangular portions rigidly connected in one piece and extending into thealigned grooves of at least three adjacent blocks to provide a rigidthree point connection therebetween, each right angular portionextending into the grooves of tWo edges of each of at least two adjacentblocks.

ARTHUR HENRY DOUGLAS. VCTOR LEFEBURE.

